Microsculptures: 10 of the World's Smallest Works of Art

These 10 feats of technical skill and nanotechnology pack incredibly detailed features into forms no bigger than the eye of a needleand in some cases, even smaller. Heres how the micro-sculptors pulled it off.

Some sculptures are built on a grandiose scale, impressing the observer with their sheer size. These are not those sculptures. These 10 feats of technical skill and nanotechnology pack incredibly detailed features into forms no bigger than the eye of a needle—and in some cases, even smaller. Here's how the micro-sculptors pulled it off.

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Mini Mailbox Made of Pencil Graphite

Mini Mailbox Made of Pencil Graphite

By Dalton Ghetti

This Brazilian artist makes extraordinary work with surprisingly ordinary tools: A razor blade, a sewing needle and a sculpting knife. But don't except to duplicate Ghetti's skill overnight, ambitious DIYers. Some of his microscopic pieces required months or even years to finish. If you're keen to spend that much time squinting at a pencil, though, and you also possess unnaturally steady hands and an unlimited supply of Sanford no. 2's, you certainly could give it a try.

Dalton Ghetti

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Lloyd's of London on the Head of a Pin

Lloyd's of London on the Head of a Pin

By Williard Wigan

This model of the Lloyd's of London building is actually smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Wigan carves his pieces under a microscope, using grains of sand as building material and fibers, spiderwebs and hairs as tools. However, because the tiniest of vibrations would destroy a sculpture, Wigan works in between his heartbeats while holding his breath—lest he accidentally inhale his own work.

Mini Mailbox Made of Pencil Graphite

By Dalton Ghetti

This Brazilian artist makes extraordinary work with surprisingly ordinary tools: A razor blade, a sewing needle and a sculpting knife. But don't except to duplicate Ghetti's skill overnight, ambitious DIYers. Some of his microscopic pieces required months or even years to finish. If you're keen to spend that much time squinting at a pencil, though, and you also possess unnaturally steady hands and an unlimited supply of Sanford no. 2's, you certainly could give it a try.

Dalton Ghetti

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Lloyd's of London on the Head of a Pin

By Williard Wigan

This model of the Lloyd's of London building is actually smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Wigan carves his pieces under a microscope, using grains of sand as building material and fibers, spiderwebs and hairs as tools. However, because the tiniest of vibrations would destroy a sculpture, Wigan works in between his heartbeats while holding his breath—lest he accidentally inhale his own work.

Williard Wigan

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The World's Smallest Guitar

By Dustin Carr

Carr, a doctoral student at Cornell University, built this guitar that is 10 micrometers long, with strings that measure 50 nanometers wide. (A micrometer is one-millionth of a meter; a nanometer is one-billionth.) The guitar could be played, but not heard. It is so small it emits a frequency inaudible to the human ear or any modern recording device.

Dustin Carr

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The World's Smallest Bull

By Satoshi Kawata

Scientists in Japan built this diminutive bull with a process called two-photon photo polymerization, in which a pair of finely focused lasers can mold a plastic resin into a range of forms. Unveiled in 2001, the bull is 7 micrometers tall, roughly the size of a single red blood cell. Ten years later, the statue remains the smallest 3D sculpture ever created.

Satoshi Kawata

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Le Petit Tour Eiffel

By Nanoscribe

This tiny Eiffel Tower stands at about 20 micrometers tall. Nanoscribe, a German company that produces 3D laser lithography systems, fabricated the tower through an advanced laser-carving technique it developed. Nanoscribe also created miniature replicas of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the Statue of Liberty.

Nanoscribe

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The Thinker

By Dong-Yol Yang

South Korean scientists laser-sculpted this detailed replica of the iconic Auguste Rodin sculpture, right down to its muscles and toes. The sculpture stands 20 micrometers high, so this deep thinker is as tall as Nanoscribe's Eiffel Tower.

Dong-Yol Yang

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Tiny Toilet

By Kaito Takahasi

Technically, it's not a sculpture: Kaito didn't create the tiny toilet himself; he simply happened upon an integrated circuit that had the contours and shape of a toilet bowl. Nevertheless, his photos, taken through an electron microscope, won the “most bizarre” award at an international nanotechnology conference. That sounds like art to us.

Kaito Takahasi

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Microscopic Matterhorn

By IBM

Researchers at IBM's Zurich lab created this 1:5 billion scale model of the famous Alpine mountain in a matter of minutes. They used a patterning technique that acts like a microscopic milling machine, which carves away at a glassy organic material with nano-size needles to create the preprogrammed shape. IBM says the patterning technique is much faster and cheaper than existing laser technologies and could be used for the mass production of nanodevices.

IBM

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Seed of Life

By John Hart

This carbon nanotube work by prolific microsculptor Hart, an MIT mechanical engineer, is based on a common geometric structure called the seed of life, a symbol that is essentially a series of overlapping concentric circles.

John Hart

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Nanobama

By John Hart

Each of these "nanobamas" is made of hundreds of millions of vertical-standing carbon nanotubes—cylinders of carbon that are several thousand times thinner than a human hair. These tubes are tiny, but strong. They can be 100 times tougher than steel and are ideal for a host of futuristic applications, including synthetic muscles and even the long-touted (and perhaps forever science-fiction) idea of a space elevator.